


Big Blue River Crossing

by xXEksXx



Category: DanPlan, Danplan (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Dan solves a murder, Graphic Description of Corpses, Hauntings, Hosuh is a new kid, M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder Mystery, Mystique and Intrigue, Paranormal, Small Town Blues, only minor characters die, slowburn, the romance is not that big of a deal but its there!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:42:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21788452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXEksXx/pseuds/xXEksXx
Summary: People just didn't die in Franchton. There were only 5,000 people. When you got old, you went to Northridge, the retirement home out of town. So, of course, you can imagine Daniel's surprise at finding his classmate, Ava Jefferson, face down in the creek. Now, you can call Dan whatever you want; whether that be lazy, unmotivated, or stubborn, you must admit he had a keen eye. There's a limit to coincidence, you know? Dan was going to find out what curse had befell Franchton even if that was the last thing he did."Daniel," Hosuh said, cocking his head to the side. "What's this?""Um?" Dan looked over to see Hosuh holding a leather-bound book. He must have grabbed it off his bookshelf. He walked over to see it's title - "Myths and Superstitions for the Lim Family" by Ronald Lim? He had no idea what it was. Except, just looking at it Dan's stomach dropped. It was bad news whatever it was and based on everyone else's faces, they felt the same."Well? What are you waiting for? Open it."
Relationships: Annabelle | Melodify & Joseph Catalanello & Jay Ko & Daniel Lim & Hosuh Lee & Stephen Ng, Hosuh Lee/Daniel Lim/Stephen Ng
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Big Blue River Crossing

People just didn't die in Franchton. There were only 5,000 people. When you got old, you went to Northridge, the retirement home out of town. The last death Dan remembered in Franchton was his uncle. He had a stroke and was found a week before Christmas. He was fifty-four. That was four years ago and people were still giving out condolences to his family. They'd received a pie just one month ago from his neighbors, the Smiths, who still felt bad for them.  
Just as often as Dan's family received condolences for the loss of his uncle, they received condolences for their embarrassment of a firstborn son. Dan's family was one of the only farming families in town. The only other family was the Ngs.   
The Ngs were cattle farmers, rather than produce farmers, and they didn't make as much as the Lims. Obviously, the only option was to rent out their middle son, Stephen, as a farmhand.   
Even when they were young, it was obvious that his parents preferred Stephen to Dan. Stephen was, after all, not a monumental failure. He was respectful, smart, and exhibited the work ethic of a man living in a Hooverville. Stephen used to gloat about it when he first picked up that cocky attitude of his. This dwindled as Dan's discomfort with it became more prominent.  
Dan wouldn't be a farmer if he could help it. He knew, realistically, that there was no way he would ever get out of this town. His grades weren't enough to get any scholarships and he didn't play sports. All he did was hang out at the town's only arcade, Colby's, and read mystery novels at the school library. He really wanted to be a lawyer, or a police officer, or a detective, or a... Well, not a farmer.  
Regardless, the simple life he lead passed by with no real change. It was the grind, draining him of all creativity and motivation.   
His classmates were familiar faces he'd known since he started school. They didn't change. He didn't change. Stephen didn't change. Ann didn't change. His parents didn't change. His siblings didn't change.  
That is, until everything changed when the first thing worth unrest occurred. A classmate, Ava Jefferson, went missing. That was, of course, the craziest thing that would happen all year.  
Stephen wasn't worried and he told Dan such. Even in a small town like this, maybe even especially in a small town like this, a child was bound to run away every blue moon.  
Dan wasn't so sure. After all, kids didn't go missing in Franchton - especially not kids like Ava Jefferson. She wasn't a druggie, wasn't known to be rebellious, and had a close relationship with her parents.  
Then Hosuh showed up. Dan was suspicious of him right from the start. He did, after all, look creepy. He was small for a boy. Not only that, he was all bones, unusual to look at. He looked like he never slept and never ate. Dan was almost tempted to ask him about it (almost) until he got it in his head.  
"I think that new kid did something to Ava," Dan said it in passing, unsure of himself and his accusation.  
"That's ridiculous, Daniel. He turned up after Ava went missing," Ann replied.  
"On top of that, that's just all conspiracy. Why would anyone do something to Ava? She'll turn up," Stephen grunted, plopping down at the table.  
The junior year was the biggest grade in the school with roughly 170 kids. They all knew Ava was missing by now. They also all knew Hosuh was completely outcasted from the rest of his classmates.  
"I mean, she's missing," Dan said. "Then three days later, he shows up to fill her seat? Besides, he's kind of quiet. He hasn't made one friend yet."  
"And that means something? Does everything have to mean something, Daniel?" Stephen asked.  
"Yes!" he exclaimed.  
"I think what Dan really means is that we should go talk to Hosuh," Ann said. "He's probably lonely. Everyone here is so tightknit and it's hard to find someone to take you under their wing."  
"Talk to him?" Stephen turned to look at Hosuh, looming over some sort of journal with a neutral face and large, tired eyes. "Is that the best idea?"  
The three friends sat in silence for maybe two seconds before Dan said, quite cheerfully might I add, "Sure it is!"  
"Wait, now I'm suspicious..." Ann murmured as Dan stood up from the table and trotted over to the new student.  
Stephen and Ann followed, a little more reserved now with Dan's assertiveness. Dan had always been a bit of a ringleader. He took charge in nearly every group he was in with his stubborn and cheerful personality.  
"Hi," Hosuh had a hand thrust in his face unexpectedly, causing him to drag his pencil harshly across the paper at an angle. "I'm Dan."  
Dan watched Hosuh's expression shift, at first annoyed, then blank again, then recognition. He had long, grey hair and looked even more skeletal up close.  
"I know you," he said and shook Daniel's hand. "You're in all of my classes. Er, I'm Hosuh."  
His rigidness seemed to melt when he smiled at Dan. It wasn't a full one, polite at best, but there was a calm sweetness to it, immediately making Dan feel less so like Hosuh was some sort of kidnapping maniac. The sweetness of one's smile is not the best metric to dictate how likely he or she is to be a psychopath. Dan knew that plenty of serial killers were thought to be kind, attractive people who no one expected.  
"It's cool to meet you, Hosuh," he said, grinning.  
"I'm Stephen," Stephen said. He was taller than Daniel and not in all of Hosuh's classes, like Dan was, but he knew they shared homeroom and P.E.  
"My name's Ann," said the girl, who Hosuh immediately recognized as his neighbor and another one of his classmates. She lived across the street and Hosuh watched her out the window, absolutely drowning a garden of flowers. They were pink like her hair and Hosuh drew the scene in one of his sketchbooks.  
"It's nice to meet you both," Hosuh said, soft expression still on his face. Dan was starting to doubt he was as weird and creepy as he initially thought.  
"Didn't you move in across the street earlier this week?" Ann asked, pointing at him.  
"I did, yeah," Hosuh said. "You were outside hosing down those flowers. That was a lot of water."  
The comment made Ann turn her eyes away. She replied, "Yeah, I guess so."  
"Can we sit down?" Dan asked.  
"Uh, yeah... Sure..." Hosuh watched the three sit down with calculating eyes.  
"How do you like Franchton?" Dan asked, his voice light. He was leaning on his hands and the stiffness of his face implied something was wrong. Hosuh supposed it wasn't that strange. After all, even the most confident of people could be in gut-wrenching internal turmoil over socializing. It was just a matter of execution.  
"Franchton is fine so far. I think Mrs. Gardner has called us heathenous at least... five times? since I got here?" Hosuh scrunched up his face as if he was actually counting.  
"She once said that each of us were touched right in the heart by the pinkie-claw of the devil," Dan agreed, earning a short chortle of laughter from Hosuh and a loud exhale out of the nose from Stephen.  
Stephen followed up, "Where's your lunch?"  
Hosuh shrugged and said, "I don't eat lunch."  
"You should," Stephen scoffed, brows furrowed.  
"I'll keep that in mind," Hosuh replied.  
Casual questions and, eventually, a full rendition of Hosuh's favorite story from his old school, left the four in tears.  
While the boys wheezed and tried to catch their breath, Ann stared, eyes wide and mouth gaping. A very subtle smile graced her face as she reiterated, "He ate it? After it had been in the urinal?"  
This made Stephen in particular laugh even louder.  
"He really did! The whole thing, too!" Hosuh exclaimed, making expressive hand motions as he spoke.  
The group broken out into even louder laughter, taking several minutes to calm down. The cheer died down as the bell ring and a day of classes continued. Dan felt that maybe he'd been wrong to assume Hosuh was some socially inept weirdo, but that didn't mean he wasn't right about him doing something to Ava Blue.  
After all, this was all too suspicious, right? What kind of coincidence was that? Even if Hosuh was completely innocent, Dan couldn't rule him out completely. He couldn't rule anyone out!  
That is, if Ava was really kidnapped. Like Stephen said, it was completely plausible that she just ran away. That didn't mean that Dan believed it. That didn't even mean that Dan believed it was the most viable answer. Regardless, he couldn't rule anything (or anyone) out.  
Of course, he didn't mind Hosuh's company. So, when he saw him walking home alone, Dan didn't hesitate to invite him to walk with them. Hosuh graciously accepted and they took off in the direction of Stoneway Creek.  
"So, do you... like your new house?" Stephen asked. Hosuh hummed in response, wondering whether he truly did or not.  
"Well... it's got a nice, rustic look to it," Hosuh told him. He was probably about to continue before Ann snorted.  
The boys looked at her in varying levels of distaste at the loud, obtrusive noise. It went from Stephen, whose nose was scrunched and gaze was disdainful, to Hosuh, whose face was relatively blank.  
"Sorry... I don't think I've ever heard a teenage boy call something rustic," she chuckled.  
"I have a good vocabulary," Hosuh noted, the soft smile back on his face.  
"I think I can believe that," Ann said.  
The four teenagers kept walking. It was spring in Franchton. Well, maybe it was going to be? Dan didn't keep track of solstices and equinoxes and he probably didn't even know those words. Either way, the thin sheet of snow that had persistently covered the ground had melted and the few streams around town had turned from ice into water again. The grass was still ugly and the trees were still naked, but Dan knew that it wouldn't be long.  
The cold weather had been near unbearable. Stephen caught a cold, refused to stay home, but also refused to stop complaining about how ill he felt for a week. There was a big Christmas party at Dan's house and his family in and out of town had come to visit for a week. That meant what felt like hundreds of little cousins on top of his own little siblings to deal with. Dan only had one older cousin, Will, who was too cool to hang out with him, apparently... and also somewhat estranged, having ran away from home for almost a year and having spiralled into drug use during that time away. It was all just a lot stress to deal with throughout one season and it wasn't even harvest.  
"Yeah, so, I think the house is okay. My room is still empty, though. I mean, I didn't have a lot of stuff because my room was kind of small in the city I used to live in," Hosuh continued, gesturing with his hands.   
"I've got this really cool window, though. It's round and you can sit on this cushion thing next to it. Er, and I've got a desk, which just came with the house. My mom just bought me a book shelf, too."  
Stephen said, "Huh. I guess you'll get to decorate it more as you spend time in it."  
"Yeah, I guess I will."  
They continued to talk about random things. It went from houses, to renovations, to video games, until they eventually brought the conversation around to Colby's and how Dan and Stephen saw a man eating spaghetti with his nose there. Hosuh seemed shocked and Ann disbelieving.  
"Hey, what's that?" Hosuh asked.  
"A man eating spaghetti through his nose, that's what it was!" Dan shouted.  
"I just don't buy it," Ann sighed.  
"No, over there," Hosuh said. He was behind them now, having stopped on the road to point one finger towards Stoneway Creek.  
"Hm?" Stephen hummed. "Oh, uh, yeah, that's the creek. Stoneway Creek. They call it that becau-"  
"Something's over there," Hosuh said, taking one step closer.  
"Like what?" asked Ann, following him. "A squirrel? Oh, near the Sybil River, there's beavers and otters. Are there some over here?"  
"Well, if it's an animal, it sure is still..." Hosuh muttered.  
The four of them walked towards whatever Hosuh saw, Hosuh in the lead and Dan following close behind.   
There are times when one should be filled with terrible, foreboding dread and there are times when one shouldn't be. Occasionally, one might stumble upon something completely unexpected, even if it kind of should have been. These occasions are exhibitive of the crushing reality of the world. These are the times one should only be filled with dread, but isn't, if not for the fact that they didn't expect it, then for the reason that they have the gravitas not to.  
This was one of those moments. It was a completely, 100% unexpected situation.  
"Holy shit..." Dan heard Stephen mumble behind him.  
That was quickly overshadowed by the blood rushing through Dan's body, loud and terrified and powerful. Over this loud, gushing sound was Hosuh's falling to the ground, scooting away from the sight as quickly as possible and Ann's bloodcurdling scream. Dan's heart squeezed in a way that made him think he was having a heart attack. His stomach squeezed in a similar way, resulting in disgusting, chunky vomit splattered on the brown leaves that hadn't decomposed yet.  
It was Ava Jefferson. She was strewn against the shore, as if she had washed up there. She was filthy, her skin both shiny with water and black with wet dirt. Her eyes were blown wide open, lifeless and blue and hers. Her hair was let down and matted and blonde and still hers. Her mouth was open, dried blood at leaking from it. However, the most atrocious part was the wounds. One huge, bloody hold in her neck and terrifying punctures in her stomach, like something had stabbed her over and over and over again.  
"What the fuck?! That is so fucking nasty!" Stephen looked paler than Dan had ever seen him.  
"That'd a dead body! That is a dead! body!" Hosuh cried out, eyes wide and body shaking.  
"It's Ava," Dan said, wiping his mouth. "It's her."  
"We need to call the police," Stephen said.  
"Yeah," Hosuh's throat was dry as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "Yeah, yeah we do."  
Ann was crying big, ugly tears as she whispered in a hoarse voice, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God..."  
"Hello, I think I'd like to report a murder?" Hosuh said. "There's-- Okay, please listen to me! There's a girl in the creek and she's... she's real bad. I can see her neck bones! Can I...? No, sir, she's dead!"  
"We're at Stoneway Creek," Stephen muttered to Hosuh.  
"We're at Stoneway Creek! She's in the creek! ... Who's we? We is me and these other kids! We were walking home and-- please? Okay, please get here quickly. Stoneway Creek, there's four of us here. She's dead. I can see her bones and there's blood everywhere. Yeah, I'll stay on the phone."  
"It's Ava," Dan said again, maybe a little grimmer this time, but definitely more sure.

The following hours were a blur and all Dan wanted to do was lay in bed when he got home. It was harrowing even if the police went easy on him. There weren't wildfire accusations, just simple questions and a promise to call their parents. Dan almost expected at least one of them to be accused of murder. That was how it went in his favorite mystery novel, The Windowsill. James Frederickson tried to solve the murder of his ex-wife to clear his name. Unfortunately, he was pushed off a building at the end and the murderer was found out by the audience to be his best friend all along. It was crazy and fun and so much cooler in the books. Murder in the real world sucked so much worse.  
And it was murder, by the way. The police called it that. Dan almost hoped a wild animal had done this. Because otherwise, who? And why?   
He, in a sick and curious moment, wondered if he could, perhaps, solve this mystery himself. Then he kicked himself for even daring to think of Ava's death as something to opportunize off of. Not everything had to be about him. A girl died. The last thing anyone needed to worry about was Dan running around looking for clues. He'd probably get himself killed in the process, too.  
Still... he had thoughts to consider. He decided, right before the sun rose, to talk to his friend Jay about it at school.  
That next school day, the entire shool gathered in the cafeteria for breakfast. They were chattering like they never had before. From the biggest senior to the smallest freshman, everyone knew about Ava. And part of what they said was crude. Too much of it seemed taunting, as if to make a joke of the death. Ava was by no means a popular girl, but she wasn't a creep! It just felt fundamentally wrong to laugh and poke fun at her death.  
Hosuh seemed to agree.  
He was sat at his lunch table that morning with the rest of his friends. Dan thought, with a swell of pride, that he and the others might have become his only friends. Then he remembered that the only reason he talked to him in the first place was because he thought he might have kidnapped Ava or something. The idea seemed far away and fuzzy. The image of Hosuh he had in his head from the idle chit-chat they'd shared was radically different from the Hosuh who looked like a freak and spent his time alone scribbling in his books.  
Maybe it was Hosuh's clothing choices that threw him off. Plenty of the boys wore dress shirts in Franchton, yes, but no one but Hosuh wore turtlenecks, shawls, vests, or baggy pants. He had worn all of these things on the first few days of school, immediately making him look strange and overdressed, but indeterminately frumpy as well.  
Sitting next to Stephen, he seemed like such a contrast. Stephen had fallen in love with looking cool when he and Jay stole a cool teenage fashion magazine in 6th grade. It was a boy's magazine, showcasing young men in backwards caps, skinny jeans, and graphic tees. More often than not, they were skateboarding or leaning against something coolly. Ever since then, Stephen would ask almost exclusively for cool clothes during holidays and his birthday. His most recent paycheck he earned from working on the Lim family farm was spent on some limited edition designer jacket that he found on eBay.  
So, Hosuh sitting there in whatever the fuck he was wearing, next to Stephen who was wearing whatever he painstakingly planned the previous day- it was jarring to the eyes. Regardless, they seemed to be getting along! Perhaps a little too well... Dan would look into the suspiciousness of that later, though.  
For now, what mattered was that Hosuh heard what the other kids were saying and completely voiced Dan's thoughts when he said, "It just doesn't seem right to talk about the dead girl that way!"  
"Yeah, I agree. Hey, you know she got mauled or something? Like her skin was torn out of her neck in a chunk," Jay said, morbidly. Jay never ate breakfast, buy always grabbed a full tray anyway and didn't explain why when asked. Dan found it wasteful, but it came in handy that day.  
"Ew, gross," said Hosuh, wrinkling up his nose. "You know what? I'm going to say something."  
"Why?" Dan asked. He'd never been the confrontational type - unless it was Stephen. Getting into it with strangers seemed useless and Hosuh seemed like a bigger pushover than he was. So why-  
"Hey," by the time Dan had finished collecting his thoughts on the matter, Hosuh was stood up behind some girl at the lunch table next to theirs. The girl turned around, unimpressed and seemingly a little huffy.   
"You shouldn't talk about dead people like that."  
For a moment, the girl seemed a little embarrassed and ashamed, but quickly externalized that emotion by turning it back on Hosuh.  
"Whatever, creep," she replied, brow furrowed.  
This statement seemed to miff Hosuh in a totally different way. As evidence of this, he grabbed Jay's full tray, ignoring his protests, and dumped it on the girl's head.  
She was a senior, probably, because she didn't look older than them by much, but also didn't come from their grade, obviously. A silence befell Dan's table and the table the girl belonged to. This sudden quietness caused a few other tables to quiet down and so forth until the chatter of the cafeteria was a faint hum.  
"Kirsten," said another girl at the table, empathetically.  
The senior girl who Dan probably recognized, probably knew, stormed away. Hosuh sat back down.  
The school picked back up in chatter as Pau, a pretty girl who owned the locker under Dan's, asked Hosuh, "Why did you do that?"  
Dan knew Pau well. She was a gentle girl, probably the most traditionally pretty girl in school, and she knew that. She was in the school's underfunded theatre program and held to it with a passion. Every year there was a big scare about the program shutting down and Pau would throw a big fit because theatre was her life and she was born for the big screen. She, even if a bit theatrical, was one of Dan's very good friends. She never hesitated to roll up with PJ, Shai, and Jay to live it up at the Lim family farm.  
Truth be told, though, Dan was a little jealous of Pau. Why? Because she was totally usurping Daniel in his role of Stephen's number one! Er, that is to say, his best friend.  
It was kind of obvious Stephen had the hots for Pau in the first place. He would try to lean up against lockers and act cool as he chatted with her about mundane things. He was the first to remind everyone of Pau's performances. He was always tailing her around. And, at first, he tried to brush that off. When Dan had asked him about it, Stephen said, "Stephen needs no one." in that proud way that made Dan punch him in the arm and bust out laughing a few seconds later.  
Then he really had the hots for Pau. He was just so blatantly flirting with her in front of everyone and Dan almost died of secondhand embarrassment because Stephen was so awkward and unintentionally hostile. It got so bad that his friend Mona, who was selectively mute, had said aloud, "Stephen is dumb as fuck."  
And it was annoying! You know? Like, he got that it sounded weird to be jealous in this scenario, but now he had to split Stephen's attention, even when he was standing right there. Because he and Pau were locker neighbors.  
But he couldn't complain, you feel? Pau was his friend and Stephen was his friend, so-  
"Umm..." Hosuh's soft voice cut into his thoughts again. "I just felt like it was the right thing."  
"Heck yeah!" said Jay, fist pumped in the air.   
Dan knew two Jays. He knew blond Jay who had squinted eyes and sharp way about him that was eerily similar to Stephen, if a little less humorous and more conniving. Then he knew red-headed Jay who made silly jokes and liked to sleep in. However, to avoid confusion narrative-wise, red-headed Jay had a nickname, Animator Jay, so it's safe to assume that if it just reads Jay, it means regular old blond Jay. This has been a friendly PSA from your narrator.  
Anyway, Shai, across the table, said, "I don't know, new kid, she's probably going to tell on you."  
"Then so be it," Stephen said solemnly, eyes closed and smile wicked. Then he cracked one eye open. "Right, Hosuh?"  
"Er, yeah... So be it," Hosuh agreed. To that, Stephen let out one of those hearty laughs that Dan had grown accustomed to.  
"Telling is for little babies anyway. She's, like, seventeen. Can't deal with problems herself?" Jay asked, one of his eyes cracked open, too. Or, maybe they were always open? It was hard to tell with him.  
"Yeah, yeah, I guess that's right," Shai sighed.  
Pau piped up, "Well, I hope she doesn't tell. If she reports you to the wrong teacher, you could be in for a world of hurt."  
Hosuh stared at her, shocked, "... Physically?"  
"No," she said. "But socially? For sure, but it's probably more of a matter of disciplinary measures and poor treatment throughout he shoolyear."  
"Oh, yeah," Stephen agreed, of course. "Some of the woman teachers can be, like, super sexist against boys."  
"Well," Hosuh said. "My family doesn't believe in corporeal punishment, so-"  
"Must be nice," Stephen and Dan said at once. Then they did the Spiderman pointing meme thing at each other, resulting in another one of Stephen's hearty laughs. Dan's stomach did a somersault for some reason, but he ignored it.  
"Yeah," Hosuh said. "My parents are kind of cool, so like- I'm not worried about them doing anything, you know? Like, I'm not gonna get my ass kicked. They'll probably take away my phone or something and talk to me about it and that'll be the end of it."  
"So, you're just never disciplined?" Stephen asked.  
"No, I am," Hosuh replied. "Just not like that. I'd rather talk things out with my parents than get the Jesus kicked out of me, you know?"  
"Oh," Stephen replied. "Yeah, I guess so."  
"Bell's boutta ring," Dan said, now focused more on his watch than the current discussion.  
"Then let's bounce!" Stephen said, upbeat as usual.  
As everyone walked towards their morning classes, Hosuh and Dan got a chance to chat alone.  
"So, about yesterday..." Dan started, trailing off as Hosuh's shoulders squared and the softness of his face hardened back into that rigid, wide-eyed stare.  
"I don't really want to talk about that," Hosuh said. "It was pretty grotesque."  
"Yeah, her neck was-" Dan shuddered. It was the most blood he'd ever seen and he'd witnessed Stephen's dad butcher swine. This wasn't a mercy killing. This was a brutal, bloody task. They'd probably hacked away like... thwack! He gagged. He didn't really want to think about it either, but it replayed in his head like a VCR tape stuck on loop.  
Hosuh continued his thought, though, "Yeah, her neck was like-- bam! It was... really bad."  
Dan recounted, "I threw up."  
"You did. That wasn't as bad, though," Hosuh replied. "My heart has been all squished up and murky ever since I saw her."  
"Yeah," Dan said.  
"Yeah," Hosuh said.  
The classes of the day flew by in a blur. He got a chance to talk to Jay about the murder, but he didn't come up with anything new.  
"My mom came home so tired last night,"Jay explained. "She didn't talk a lot at dinner and I didn't want to pry."  
"Ah, yeah, okay," Dan said. "That clocks."  
"I can ask tonight, though, dude," Jay told him. "She'll probably be a little more willing to talk then."  
"Yeah, man. Sounds good," Dan said.  
Dan would have to count on that, he supposed, though he was still berating himself for being so curious. What was the use in getting himself entangled in this in any way? It was probably best he stayed out of it, and yet...  
Last period was gym class and Stephen was leaned on the locker beside his and Pau's again.  
"Yeah, so, I threw it," he said. Dan had been hanging on to every word of the story because it sounded really cool... Maybe too cool for Stephen. Meanwhile, Pau had absentmindedly hummed along.  
"You threw it?" she asked, laughing. "Why?"  
"Because it was hot!" he said.  
"Did you throw it at Jay?" she gasped.  
"Yeah!" he said, looking a little more maniacal, but probably just embarrassed. "And he deserved it, too!"  
"Yeah, I agree," she replied. "Okay, I'm headed to cosmetology," she said, waving. "See you later, boys!"  
"Bye, Pau!" and "See you, Pau!" was followed up by a weak sigh from Stephen.  
"Dude," Stephen said. "Dude."  
Dan covered up his annoyance with laughter. "You're so whipped, man!" Dan laughed. "So whipped!"  
"I know!" Stephen said, looking less embarrassed than he was at the end of sophomore year, but embarrassed nonetheless.  
"Hey, you want to stop by Colby's after school?" Dan asked.  
Stephen's work schedule had never been too concrete. It was usually a matter of harvest, though he came by to help with the chickens all throughout the year. Luckily, though, there wasn't a real need for either of them that day.  
"Uh," Stephen paused to think about it. "I don't know, man. If there's a murderer galavanting around town I don't want to get wrapped up in that."  
"Oh, yeah?" Dan said coyly. "Damn, I thought I could throw you at any killer that came for me. Guess not."  
"Classic Dan, always putting video games over the safety of his friends," Stephen said with a click of his tongue. "Of course, I could take down any killer that I crossed paths with. I'd be all hiyah! Hwa!"  
Laughing at Stephen's sick karate moves, the two friends bumbled through the hallways together, towards the gym. The halls of Franchton high were short, but wide. It was more than enough to fit all the individual students milling around to their evening classes. Still, somehow the hallways were subject to overcrowding that Dan expected of a bigger school.  
When they arrived at gym class, they were playing gaga. That was the game with the big wooden pentagon and the three foam balls being smacked around inside. Hosuh looked severely confused.  
"What is... gaga?" he asked.  
"It's, like," he tried to think of the best way to explain it. "You're in the wood thing, against the walls, and you roll the ball across the floor to get others out. If it hits you anywhere that's not your hands or arms when hitting the ball, you're out."  
"That sounds pretty tame," Hosuh told him, looking relieved.  
"It can get intense," Dan said. "It's probably the most fun game gym class does, so yeah. I'm the best at it, though."  
"Hm," Hosuh's smile turned devious. "Not for long. I'm looking to dethrone you."  
"Oh, you're approaching me?" Dan asked, smile probably just as menacing.  
"Too bad neither of you are going to outmatch Stephen," Stephen said.  
"Okay, sure," Dan said. "We'll see about that in the arena."  
That gaga game was as intense as they all were. Dan won a round, but his other classmates won the other two. That didn't mean he didn't brag about it to Stephen and Hosuh like crazy. Stephen's only defense was that he didn't win them all, but Hosuh was happy he made it to final three in one of the rounds.  
"I am so relieved to be going home..." Stephen said as they grabbed their backpacks. "I don't want to be at school anymore."  
"Break's in March," Dan reminded him.  
Stephen groaned, "I am, regardless, more burned out than I've been all year. I can't wait for spring break."  
"I'm not burned out yet, but I'm still on that new school adrenaline, you know? Give it some time," Hosuh said, shrugging his backpack onto his shoulders.  
"Well, ready to face another walk?" Dan asked.  
"No, actually," Hosuh replied. "I want to, I do, but my mom thinks it'd be safer for her to drive me."  
"Actually? Same here," Stephen agreed. "It's less that my folks want to and more that I don't want to have to walk down by the creek for a few days, but..."  
"It'll just be me and Ann then," Dan said.  
They approached the side of the shool where they usually left off. There sat Ann in a long cardigan, screwing around on the laptop she lugged around everywhere. She was into technology, which was kind of unique in Franchton. The only people he'd met whose family had their own computers were Ann and Animator Jay. Ann didn't just carry around a computer, though. She also kept her smartphone and a high quality camera that see kept in her pocket and around her neck respectively.  
"Speak of the devil," Stephen said. "There she is."  
"Oh, hey, guys," she said, smiling sleepily at them. She didn't look like she usually did. She seemed a bit more disheveled, a bit paler. Then again, he figured, all four of them probably did, for as much as they were ignoring it.  
"Hey," "Hi," they said, leaning over her shoulder to get a look at what was on her computer screen.  
It was a news article that read in big, bold letters, "Small Town, Big Murder?" and it had a picture of Ava before she died, smiling at the camera. Dan recognized the location. The homecoming dance. Mrs. Bird, the art teacher, had been going around taking pictures. Dan was in one with Stephen, Jay, and Ann. They'd made funny faces and they found it later on the school Facebook.  
"That's Ava, huh?" Hosuh asked. "She doesn't really look like she did in the..."  
"Yeah, well," Ann said, voice coarse. "She was alive then."  
"This is... weird. She was at school just a week or so ago. Now there's a whole news article about her death."  
"Huh," Dan said, mind far away.  
"This is the only time Franchton is going to be in a real newspaper," Ann said, starting grimly at the screen. "And it's this. She's just... not alive anymore. How fucked up is that?"  
"It's fucked up," Dan agreed.  
"It's not... fair," Hosuh said. "But it's a part of life, I guess. Sometimes... really bad things happen and someone is torn away and it's not fair, but it happens."  
"Not in Franchton," Dan bit.  
Hosuh quirked an eyebrow at him. That's right; he was from the city. He had mentioned that yesterday. People probably had their own lives there. They weren't connected by strings to everyone in town. They probably spread out, their lives thinly connected by recognition rather than knowing. He just didn't understand.  
"Nobody dies in Franchton. We all know each other one way or another. When you get old, you're sent away to the retirement home out of town and so," Dan paused. "Nobody dies in Franchton."  
"It just throws things off balance," Stephen agreed, more serious than he had five minutes prior. "It doesn't happen."  
"More than anything, nobody dies young in Franchton. Nobody's mauled to death either," Dan sighed. "Something's very wrong here and I don't think it's settled in yet."  
"But that's the thing, right?" Ann asked. "Somebody did this, but who?"  
"Well," Stephen paused, suddenly perplexed.  
"Right! You're thinking it, too! Somebody in town probably did this if it really was murder!" Ann exclaimed.  
"People pass through town, don't they?" Hosuh asked, suddenly looking very nervous.  
"Hardly ever," Dan said, nodding solemnly.  
"I–" as Stephen opened his mouth to speak, a horn honked. "Oh, fuck, that's my mom. I'll be at your house tomorrow, Dan! Bye, everyone!"  
The group waved to Stephen as he got in the pickup truck. Then Dan remembered, oh, that's right. Tomorrow was a Saturday. That was when Stephen helped water tomatoes and chickpeas and usually slept over. Maybe on Sunday they'd go to Colby's.  
"Oh, I see, my parents' car, too. Bye, guys!" Hosuh called, trotting off. The car Hosuh got into was nice. It was probably new. Ann's family had a bug and Dan's had a van, which Stephen had lovingly dubbed the DanVan.  
"Oh, they're driving today? Are you?" Ann asked, looking up at him.  
"Nah, wouldn't want you to have to walk the mean old streets of Franchton alone," Dan replied, flexing.  
"Oh, of course," she said, shutting her laptop, standing up, and brushing herself off. "Because you're such a big macho Man, right? Really tall, really strong."  
"I don't like the sarcasm in your voice!" Dan said, laughing.  
"You don't have to like it. You just have to deal with it," Ann said.  
The duo laughed and set off down their usual path, knowing deep down that it was more sinister this time.   
Ann and Dan had been walking home together since they were nine. At first, Ann's older cousin would walk them. He was a middle schooler. The middle school got off at 2:50, so there was time for him to make his way to Henrietta Lacks Elementary. Then, when they were in middle school, they were allowed to walk alone. Stephen joined in soon after. Occasionally, Jay would tag along, too, but for the most part it was just Ann, Dan, and Stephen. Rain or shine, they walked together.  
When they arrived at the high school, things were rough between their friend group. Some stupid middle school drama made a third of their friends split off into other friend groups. Dan didn't realize how many close friends he had in comparison to other kids at school and he felt pretty lucky. Still, there was some stinging words exchanged between all of them at the time.  
That was the first time they didn't all walk together. Stephen was pissed at Ann and Ann decided to walk home with Pau and PJ instead to blow off steam. That left Dan to walk alone, wondering how all hell broke loose during summer vacation and carried into his high school experience. It was sort of rough to deal with in freshman year.  
Things were fine now! Dan's friend group was smaller now, but closer than ever. They'd survived it all, the teen drama resolved and their lives grinding by everyday since then.  
It taught him something, though. If there came a time when they weren't all together on the walk home, something was probably fatally wrong. Sometimes it just meant one of them was sick that day, but Stephen kept in shape and Ann had a ridiculously strong immune system. So, usually, they were all there.  
To think, something could scare Stephen off the streets. Unbearable, unbeatable Stephen? It was strange. It was... scary. Dan never knew someone with confidence like Stephen's. What could shake it? Nothing, that's what!  
That was why this murder felt like a harrowing, freaky thing that affected him more than personally. Not only had he seen her, hair matted and bloody, but the fright of it had touched each of them in their very soul. Ava Jefferson was a good person, Dan thought. It wasn't fair that her life had been torn from her– and in such a gruesome way, too. It wasn't fair that he'd seen it or that any of them had.  
Four was safer than two, but two was safer than one. Right now, Dan was more grateful than ever for Ann and her total lack of regard for danger. Dan's parents were busy people, barely had time to pick up all of Dan's other siblings, let alone make an extra stop to the high school and get Dan. He'd much rather walk, even if all of this was happening.  
Ann had always been that way, though. She liked to be places she shouldn't be and goof off when there was no good in goofing. She was an adventurer at heart, a rogue... with a camera.  
That was why Ann's ideas were never good ones. If he found himself aligning with Ann in a risky situation, it was probably a sign he was in the wrong. It wasn't because she was stupid; it was because she took risks that somehow always worked out for her. Dan wasn't so lucky. If he were, he wouldn't have found that body... or the next two, right?


End file.
